Minister under fire for home-swap payout

MSPs were last night facing fresh demands for changes to their controversial housing allowances after it was revealed that an SNP minister has claimed more than £15,000 in taxpayers' money after switching homes in the same town.

Stewart Stevenson, the transport minister, sold his family home in Linlithgow in May 2003 for 282,000, just months after buying a house in his Banff and Buchan constituency.

The MSP registered the constituency home with the Holyrood authorities as his main place of residence and then bought a smaller property in Linlithgow to use while he was in Edinburgh on parliamentary business.

This allowed him to claim the Edinburgh Accommodation Allowance, EAA, on the mortgage on the new home which MSPs with constituencies distant from the capital can claim.

Mr Stevenson has claimed 450 a month from the taxpayer since buying the home in 2003.

Last night Mr Stevenson - who swapped the three-storey family home in Linlithgow which he and his wife bought in 1974 for the more modest 170,000 house in the same town - said he had done nothing wrong.

In a statement he said the sale of the home in Linlithgow had "nothing whatever to do with the allowances system". He added: "It was a family home held over 30 years, which at no stage received support."

Mr Stevenson said that the move to Banffshire was the result of becoming a constituency MSP in 2001 and he "believed it was proper to have my family home in the constituency".

He continued: "Once that happened, then obviously I couldn't commute three-and-a-half hours every day to Banffshire, and a place was needed in or around Edinburgh to fulfil parliamentary duties."

He said he was in favour of changes to the system currently being considered by the parliament's ruling Corporate Body.

Mr Stevenson claimed 4,198 in interest payments, 2,683 in legal costs and 628 for council tax on his "second" home in the financial year after buying it.

He has claimed nearly 22,000 under the allowance, of which around 15,000 was in mortgage-interest subsidies, in three years. He also receives more than 1,000 a year to pay his council tax.

Tommy Sheridan, former Solidarity MSP said: "This is the latest example of MSPs seeking to make gains from the taxpayer. It makes it more urgent the case for reform."

He said that he had written to all 129 MSPs on the issue but only Labour's Helen Eadie had replied, saying she was favour of the idea of a parliament block of flats for Holyrood, similar to one which exists in Stockholm for Swedish parliamentarians.